Six minutes to midnight3/2/2023 ![]() ![]() Izzard, so dazzling as a live performer, is always fun to watch onscreen: As Miller, she has a vibrant, inquisitive energy. Even with her countrymen becoming increasingly suspicious, with good reason, of all things German, Miss Rocholl insists on believing in the basic decency of her young charges.īut the movie is still quietly entertaining, and there’s something heartfelt about its approach-it seems guided by a desire to believe that young people’s views can be shaped and redirected for the better by simple kindness. But they’re also just girls, teenagers, and the school’s headmistress, Miss Rocholl (Judi Dench), has a great deal invested in giving them a proper English education, as well as simply keeping them safe. The attendees are all young German women from “good” families, very possibly the daughters, nieces or goddaughters of Nazi officials. Izzard plays a teacher, Thomas Miller, who takes a job at Augusta-Victoria College, a finishing school in the coastal town of Bexhill-on-Sea that’s sort of a cross-cultural experiment between England and Germany. It’s August of 1939, and England is on the brink of a war whose scope it can’t yet imagine. He convinces us of his ability to play a teacher who must conform to the culture of a finishing school and yet act as a prized spy for Britain, infiltrating the soon-to-be-defunct Anglo-German Fellowship.ġ02 minutes.Six Minutes to Midnight, an espionage drama directed by Andy Goddard and starring Eddie Izzard and Judi Dench, has a gentle spirit that you don’t expect from a period spy thriller-but then, there aren’t many spy thrillers with imperiled schoolgirls at their center. But the picture belongs to Eddie Izzard, known to British audiences as a stand-up comedian. Judi Dench can do no wrong and is ideally suited to be the dedicated head of the school, a woman who would likely protect her girls even as war with Germany begins. ![]() In fact Ilse’s murderous action outside the school will lead to the dramatic chase scenes, the arrest of Thomas Miller who is now considered by authorities to be a British traitor, and a series of twists that turn the movie into a real thriller. By contrast Ilse Keller (Carla Juri), a young, pretty teacher, is a dedicated Nazi who makes sure that the girls listen to propaganda on the radio and is soon to become more than a mere, quiet cog in the German war machine. We see that headmistress Rocholl considers her charges to be “her girls” despite their nationality, and is highly motivated to do the best job in teaching them notwithstanding their being daughters of members of the Nazi high command. The major segment of the film takes place within the school. At the same time Whitehall wants to hold them hostage-though the UK’s motives are not entirely clear. As Septemapproaches, which will signal the opening of World War 2 in Europe, Hitler’s plan is to evacuate the girls suddenly. Miller is a British agent, the girls are German, sent via the Anglo-German Fellowship to represent the best of Nazi youth. To conform to the culture of the school, Miller does likewise and is well liked by the young people and by the headmistress as well. Wheatley (Nigel Lindsay, playing a flawless death body washed up on the beach), asks what book the girls had been reading, they reply “no book.” They insist that Wheatley told them stories. When Thomas Miller (Eddie Izzard), who had been hired by headmistress Miss Rocholl (Judy Dench) after the suspicious death of his predecessor, Mr. You can tell that this is a finishing school rather than a real college as you watch the girls walking about, each with a book on her head, casting fierce glances at the one pupil whose book drops noisily to the floor. That “Six Minutes of Midnight” is based on the true story of incidents surrounding Augusta-Victorian college, a finishing school for girls on England’s south coast, might make us wonder just how many original cusp-of-war stories must be available for writers and filmmakers. Goddard, who has an impressive résumé of made-for-TV movies and TV episodes (including many for the great “Downton Abbey”), now tackles his sophomore full-length feature. Just when you think you’ve seen movies on every political aspect of Europe on the brink of World War 2, along comes an original film of international intrigue, a spy story with the usual basket of twists, leading up to a series of exciting chase scenes for which director Andy Goddard prepared us for quite well. Writer: Andy Goddard, Eddie Izzard, Celyn JonesĬast: Judi Dench, Eddie Izzard, Carla Juri, Kevin Eldon, David Schofield Reviewed for & linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten COMING-OF-AGE, FINISHING SCHOOL, GERMAN PROPAGANDA, INTERNATIONAL INTRIGUE, Nazis, SCHOOLS, SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT, SPIES, STUDENTS ![]()
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